AOR Live Albums
AOR stands for Adult Oriented Rock.
It is a type of music that developed in the late seventies with bands like Boston, Foreigner, Journey and Toto.
These groups in the early seventies would have either played progressive rock or hard rock but a more marketable middle area developed.
AOR can be criticised for being formulaic and false because it’s lost any base in the original forms of music like the blues, country and folk.
But at the same time it’s very catchy, tuneful and turns into a guilty secret.
It may not be cool to like AOR groups and the live albums these groups produce but for a period in the late 1970s and early 1980s, they were very hard to resist and the bands continue to get a lot of radio play..
These live albums will be controversial. The AOR sound is toughened up in concert and loses some of its pristine smoothness. Some fans aren’t going to like that while others are going to find that it makes the songs more real and likeable.
The AOR live albums include:
Asia Live in Buffalo 1982
Asia Live In Massachussettes 1983
Asia Live In Moscow 1990
Asia Fantasia Live In Tokyo 2007
Asia Spirit Of The Night 2009
Asia Resonance Live In Basel Switzerland 2010
Bon Jovi One Wild Night Live 1985-2001
Boston Feeling It In Cleveland 1976
City Boy – BBC In Concert 1975
Dennis DeYoung And The Music Of Styx Live In Los Angeles 2014
FM (UK) Live No Electricity Required
Foreigner – Classic Hits Live recorded between 1978 and 1988
Foreigner Extended Versions 2005
Foreigner Extended Versions II 2010
Foreigner Can’t Slow Down…When It’s Live! 2010
Heart Rock The House Live
Heart The Road Home 1994
Heart – Dreamboat Annie Live 2007
Journey – Captured 1980
Journey – Live In Houston 1981: The Escape Tour 1981
Journey Greatest Hits Live 1981 1983
Kansas Two For The Show 1978
Loverboy Setlist The Very Best of Loverboy Live 1982 to 1986
Loverboy Live Loud & Loose 1982 to 1986
Rainbow Denver 1979
REO Speedwagon Live: You Get What You Play For
REO Speedwagon Setlist: The Very Best of Reo Speedwagon Live
Reo Speedwagon Live At Moondance Jam 2010
Saga In Transit 1982
Styx – Caught in the Act 1983
Toto Absolutely Live 1992
Toto Livefields 1999
Toto 25th Anniversary – Live In Amsterdam 2003
Toto Falling In Between Live 2007
Toto 35th Anniversary Tour Live In Poland 2013
You can get these albums from Amazon.com – Amazon.co.uk.
The Best Live Albums Of All Time
I have a readers poll to help you to find the Best AOR Albums recorded live.
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Can’t Slow Down When It’s Live is a live album by Foreigner.
It was recorded live at the Ryman Auditorium inNashville, Tennessee on March 16, 2010
except for track CD2-7 which was recorded live at Rock Of Ages Festival at Seebronn in Germany on July 31, 2010.
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Live In Portland 89 is a live album by Heart.
It was recorded in Portland, Oregon on May 12, 1989 and has been released by Air Cuts. I think this is a former radio broadcast and not an official release by the band. I’ve read that copyright protection on these albums is weaker in Europe.
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Live At The Agora Ballroom 1976 is a live recording by Boston.
It has been released on the Rock Melon label as a CD and as an mp3 in the UK by Lilith Records and also by Pon Music.
This is another version of the concert recording which has also gone by the name of Feeling It in Cleveland.
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Setlist: The Very Best of Loverboy Live is a repackaged 2011 re-release of Canadian AOR band Loverboy’s live compilation Live, Loud & Loose.
It may have value in that it provides access to the 1982 to 1986 live recordings at a better price.
It is available from Amazon.com – Amazon.co.uk
These links will help you get to the albums quickly and easily but I recommend that you still search for the best deal.
Live Loud & Loose is a live compilation album by Canadian AOR band Loverboy that collects together songs from concerts in 1982, 1983 and 1986.
The band were popular in Canada and the United States in the early 1980s but made little impact in the UK so I have no connection with them.
The album has been re-released in 2011 under a different title – Setlist The Very Best of Loverboy Live.
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Denver 1979 is a live album by Rainbow. It has been released on vinyl and as an mp3 download by Cleopatra Records (UK) and Purple Pyramid Records (USA).
It was recorded on the Down To Earth tour and catches Rainbow in the transition phase between the hard rock band they were with Ronnie James Dio and the AOR band they became.
This features Graham Bonnett on vocals.
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I started to record the albums I was playing in February 2015 because I realised that there could well be a difference between those albums I think are excellent and those that I turn to play time after time.
This isn’t a category of music that I think of as my natural territory as it includes bands like Foreigner, Journey, Toto and Styx. The one band I am drawn to that I’d fit into this genre – Boston – hasn’t released an authorised live album yet.
The full listings of what I played are shown on these pages:
– February 2015 – March 2015 – April 2015 – May 2015 – June 2015 – July 2015 – August 2015 – September 2015 – October 2015 – November 2015 – December 2015
February 2015 to May 2015
No albums played these months.
June 2015
July 2015 to December 2015
No albums played these months.
Live No Electricity Required is an acoustic live album by UK AOR band FM.
The album was released in 1993 but I haven’t been able to find out where or when it was recorded. If you know, please tell me in the comments section below.
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Extended Versions II is a live album by AOR band Foreigner and a follow-up to Extended Versions.
All except for one song were recorded at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee on March 16, 2010. Can’t Slow Down was recorded at the Rock of Ages Festival in Seebronn, Germany on July 31, 2010.
An extended version of the Ryman concert is found on Can’t Slow Down…When It’s Live!
Again this live album features Kelly Hansen singing lead vocals instead of the original Lou Gramm.
Rock The House Live is a live album by Heart.
It was recorded at the Centrum, Worcester, Massachusetts on November 28, 1990 and was released in 1991.
